SEPHARDIC BNEI ANUSIM ORGANIZATION (S.B.A.O.)

Sephardic Bnei Anusim (Hebrew: בני אנוסים ספרדיים, Hebrew pronunciation: [ˈbne anuˈsim sfaraˈdijim], lit. "Children [of the] coerced [converted] Spanish [Jews]) is a modern term which is used to define the contemporary Christian descendants of an estimated quarter of a million 15th-century Sephardi Jews who were coerced or forced to convert to Catholicism during the 14th and 15th century in Spain and Portugal.

The vast majority of Conversos remained in Spain and Portugal, their descendants in both these countries numbering in the millions. The small minority of Conversos who did emigrate normally chose destinations where Sephardic communities already existed, particularly in the Ottoman Empire and North Africa, but also more tolerant cities in Europe, immediately reverting to Judaism. Although a few travelled to Spanish America, doing so was particularly difficult since only those Spaniards who could certify no recent Muslim or Jewish ancestry were allowed to travel to the New World. Nevertheless, the constant flow of Spanish emigration to Latin America until well into the 20th century led to many Latin Americans having Converso ancestry, in the same way as modern Spaniards do.